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<h2>About urlTea / <acronym title='Frequently Asked Questions'>FAQ</acronym></h2>
<h3 id='history'><a name="history"></a>History</h3>
<p>When <a href="http://urltea.com/2?chris-blog" title="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris Pirillo</a> twittered his frustration at TinyURLs not being 'pretty' or 'semantic' when he posted them into <a href="http://urltea.com/y">Twitter</a>, ie, it wasn't obvious what was behind them, <a href="http://urltea.com/1?brett-blog" title="http://inner.geek.nz/">Brett Taylor</a> stepped up and built <strong>urlTea</strong>!</p>
	
<h3 id="why"><a name="why"></a>Why urlTea over TinyURL, et al?</h3>
<p>TinyURL is great, heck, it was the inspiration for urlTea.  However, we've added the ability for users to tag on a question mark and describe the url however they want, as part of the url.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<p><code>http://urltea.com/1</code></p>
<p>is the same as:</p>
<p><code>http://urltea.com/1?my-blog</code></p>
<p><code>http://urltea.com/1?lol_at_the_photo</code></p>
<p><code>http://urltea.com/1?supercalifragilisticexpialedocious</code></p>
<p>although, that last one kind of defeats the purpose</p>
<p>The great thing about this though was you could add as much description as you cared, but if it got cut short (ie, by Twitter's 140 character limit), the url would still function properly, as long as everything before the question mark was intact.</p>
<p>Also, the user-interface design values for many of the existing TinyURL clones is lacking. So we made ours better.</p>
<p>And to make sure we were Web 2.0 buzzword compliant (:rolleyes:), we added a handy API so you can build your own applications that create urlTea shorter URLs too!</p>
	
<h3>How do you say urlTea?</h3>
<p><em>earl tea</em>, like the tea blend, <a href="http://urltea.com/10">Earl Grey</a></p>

<h3>What the hang is this green gingham background?</h3>
<p>A teacloth.</p>

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<h2 id="bookmarklet"><a name="bookmarklet"></a>Bookmarklets</h2>
<p><a href="javascript:void(location.href='http://urltea.com/create.php?url='+escape(location.href))" class="bookmarklet">urlTea!</a> &lt;- drag this to your bookmarks bar</p>
<h3>I can't drag this link in Internet Explorer! Help!</h3>
<p>Okay, if you really don't want to upgrade to <a href="http://getfirefox.com/">Firefox</a>, then here's what you need to do:</p>
<ol>
	<li><em>Right click</em> on the bookmarklet above and click on <strong>Add to Favorites...</strong></li>
	<li>When warned you might be adding an un-safe link to your favorites, click <strong>Yes</strong>.  All the link does is open a new page, and providing it the current page's URL.</li>
	<li>Click on <strong>Create in &gt;&gt;</strong> to reveal your bookmark folders</li>
	<li>Select the <em>Links</em> bookmark folder</li>
	<li>Click <strong>OK</strong></li>
</ol>

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<h2 id="teabot">Google Talk and Jabber: TeaBot</h2>
<p><a href='xmpp://teabot@urltea.com' class='bookmarklet'>teabot@urltea.com</a> &lt;-- click to add to your IM client!</p>
<p>Do you use Google Talk or Jabber?  Then add the above contact to your Jabber or Google Talk IM client, or to your Gmail contacts list! Just IM the TeaBot, short and stout, with your long URL, and he'll tip over and pour a short urlTea URL out for you!</p>
<p>Thanks to <a href="http://arch.jabber.com/weblog/">Joe Hildebrand</a> for writing TeaBot and to <a href="http://code-bear.com/bearlog">Bear</a> for hosting the server it runs on.</p>

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<h2 id="ads">Media</h2>
<p>Want to throw money at us in exchange for something? We're all ears: <a href='mailto:support@urltea.com?subject=urlTea - we want to give you money'>support@urltea.com</a></p>

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<h2 id="plans">What plans do you have for urlTea?</h2>
<p>We want urlTea to be the best URL shortening service on the net.  We value open source and transparency.</p>
<p>In the unlikely event that for some reason we can't support urlTea, we will gladly hand over all source code, intellectual property, domain names and the urlTea database to a trusted and capable entity who will uphold the values that urlTea is being built on.</p>
<p>If no entity is found to pass the teapot to, we'll give 90 days notice that we're shutting down via the homepage</p>
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<h2 id="todo"><a name="todo"></a>TODO:</h2>
<ul>
	<li class='done'>Bookmarklet for creating a urlTea to the site you're currently on</li>
	<li class='done'>Making a Jabber bot that when IM'd a URL, will reply with a "urlTea" URL, saving the user from having to create it elsewhere.</li>
	<li>Auto-creating more semantic "urlTea" URLs, which further saves the user from guessing what the shorter link goes to.</li>
	<li>preview.urltea.com (and p.urltea.com for brevity) to display a link to the destination, rather than just redirect</li>
	<li>Cookie options to force preview mode and to disable automatic copy to clipboard</li>
	<li>stats.urltea.com (and s.urltea.com for brevity) to show some simple statistics on a urltea url.</li>
	<li>random.urltea.com (and r.urltea.com for brevity) to pick a random url from the urltea database. Also preview.random and pr.</li>
	<li>Go Open Source!</li>
	<li>Break even!</li>
</ul>

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